Cultural Icon
In spite of, or perhaps because of the initial difficulties in adjusting to computerized registration, CRISP quickly became a sort of cultural artifact—something uniquely Michigan. It was homegrown—its successes prompted pride in the University’s abilities to find creative solutions for its own problems, while its breakdowns prompted reflections on the University’s abilities to create its own problems. For better or for worse, CRISP was an icon for innovation at Michigan across generations.
Although the acronym was updated from Computer Registration In Spite of Problems to the more serious Computer Registration Involving Student Participation before it was rolled out in 1975, “CRISP” stuck, and quickly became part of the campus vernacular. Some were confused, or even enraged by the whimsical and obtuse name. One professor went so far as to write a letter to
Vice-President Frank Rhodes:
“Why should faculty be expected to remember every damned acronym made up in every damned office on campus? Conversely, why shouldn’t the chap whom we pay to keep us informed be responsible for doing it competently? Is it a matter of pleasing lots of idiosyncratic tastes, or is it a matter of intelligent communication?”(29)
Generations of Wolverines
Still, CRISP was quickly adapted, not only in reference to the system itself, but also as a verb to describe registration procedures. Professor of English, Richard Bailey, wrote a brief article describing the linguistic phenomenon around CRISP:
“'How do I CRISP?' This arresting question appears in a dialogue created under the heading FAQ at a University of Michigan Web site. Like ‘Diag,’ ‘CRISP’ is one of those words that lets alumni of a certain era know they went to school in Ann Arbor.”(30)
Along with its distinctively pun-able name, CRISP ushered in a slew of lingo that made its way into campus parlance: “student verification form”, “entry restriction”, “override”...(31) work: “These systems function as automated terminal operators connected to an independently existing software program that retrieves and/or updates database records in a host computer. In response to touch-tone input that a caller provides in response to specific voiced instruction, the voice response system (VPS) sends commands to the software program (CRISP), reads the screen output of that software and speaks reports and additional instructions to the caller. This process continues using selection menus and processing loops until the caller is satisfied
with the reported results, i.e., completes registration.”(32) The touch-tone system was bought through a vendor, Periphonics, and included all the components needed to connect interactively with the existing Data Systems Center databases by means of a campus telephone.(33)